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I'm going to start cranking skydives to work on my track and wanted to get some things to work on. Any pointers from trackers who jump tracking suits? I've been trying to figure out the difference between a more classic skydiving track (more penciled with arms/legs closer to the middle) versus this wider stance that I'm seeing more of now. I'm a 5'10 ~150 some what lanky. I have 0 BASE and a mentor. I've talked to him but want to get some info from a group of people and see what the general consensus is.

I figured I'd ask this for some of the newer guys like myself. I haven't been able to find too much information regarding body positioning. Any info would be much appreciated! I can't be the only one trying to refine their track haha!

Cya

Hey mate,

I have done a small bit of tracking in my time jumping,

The best thing i found was get out there and do atleast 100 tracking jumps from skydiving ,each time get out further and further away from dropzone...

The thing is me personally is that your track changes all the time one day you could be tracking awesome the next no so good depends on state of mind, energy levels from hike, sleep, feeling good and most of all being current..

i tell my students before showing up to do atleast 80-100 tracking jumps to prepare for big wall tracking...

It does show in the people who prepare a long way in advance..

here is a few tracks that you can see in body position...

http://youtu.be/SxjjYFONFLY

http://youtu.be/Va569GEYk-A

http://youtu.be/kcNqoF5F9-k

http://youtu.be/wLBPIzqDLEo

http://youtu.be/SfsnadznCWc

http://youtu.be/topMCx5xnYY

Most of all mate get out there do the jumps have fun and feel what makes a difference to you , what your body type shows in flight is different to what others do...

If you find a good tracker at your dropzone ask to chase him ...and film

Good luck on ya quest mate...

Body position. A track suit increases your surface area so you must adopt a wider arm and especially leg stance if you want to use the extra surface area. Very strong legs and body, force the air to flow around you. Experiment with upper body rolling shoulders over, sucking in stomach to manipulate your angle.
Head position, in line with spine. Point the top of you head in the direction you want to track and look with your eyes not your head. Bringing your head up will throw a burble over your top surface and kill the lift.
Angle. You must then place this all on the correct angle to generate the forward speed. Too flat will just be falling in a stall, too steep is diving. The angle takes time and experience to find.
Exit, leaving the object and jumping straight into your track position and onto the perfect angle.
The perfect track is the perfect combination of the above, you could easily spend a full base career searching for and refining your track.
Have fun.

Thanks for the advice, look forward to applying it next time at the DZ

You can try using an audible GPS such as Flysight to max out your track while you're skydiving.

I would recommend doing lots of hop n' pop skydives to begin with in your track suit for practice just cause you'll actually be able to see the progress your making on the ground and over time get a better judge on your flying distances and positions.

Plus a 182 with a good cut has slower air-speed,
still way faster than a dead air exit but much
slower than a turbine at 13,500 or terminal.

ultimately youll have to find what works best for you, so keep skydiving your ass off, but a good general idea is
toes out, backs of heels pointing twds each other, pressing down with your inside ankles, almost like a whale fin then your lower half will provide the drive and your torso and arms will hold you up.. slightly angled downward and for the hella speed put your chin on your chest..

I like tracking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_UwA_nST8k at 1:00 and 4:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XqF6yU_OA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAKJxwFetBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKceTafQlxU

Tracking is awesome. It is actually delighting to see how many jumpers are actually going back from wingsuits to tracking and starting to learn how to track again. Tracking is new wingsuiting! :)

There are couple of advices that I can give :
1) The only way to learn how to track is by tracking. Sounds trivial but that's how it is. You will not learn to track good in BASE out of airplanes (unfortunately) and not by doing 20 tracking jumps a year while doing other stuff. If you want to learn to track it takes time and commitment. Airplanes are good for practising basics but a good portion of base tracking is done in subterminal airspeeds and that you can oly learn from cliffs (or from a balloon). So jump, jump, jump and jump and take your time to learn. Concentrate on good exit, try to get a really powerful launch. Every single inch of clearance you get on your launch will help you in your subterminal track. Launch out, not up. Go agrressive and jump directly into tracking position and try to push your track directly from the word go.

2) looking and asking what other people do is good but there is no magical body position that makes you fly. You have to find the position that works for you. All people are built different, we are of different height, weight, width and our center of mass is different. Depending on all of these variables the optimal position that works for me best can be quite different from the position that works for you. Adding to that there are personal preferences that just seem to fit people different (like the palms up vs down). Try out different things, change one thing at a time and try it out for 5 jumps in a row and see how it effects your track and how it feels.

And remember to have fun and enjoy. Tracking far is cool but remember that this is not a tracking race. In base jumping the best base jumper is not the one who tracks furthest but the one who has most fun!